Camp on high slopes in Mt. Charleston Wilderness and help rebuild the Griffith Peak Trail!

*This project is currently full.

Be a part of the volunteer trail crews that will rebuild Griffith Peak Trail this summer! Sleep under the stars, breathe in the mountain air, experience Mt. Charleston Wilderness up close, and appreciate trails in a new way. Building trail side-by-side with other outdoors lovers is a fun and immensely rewarding way to give back to the places you love. Lace up your boots and join us!

For this project, we’ll camp along South Loop Trail, 4.2 miles and 2,900 ft. up from the trailhead. Each day we’ll put on our day packs and hike to Griffith Peak Trail. Trailwork will consist of using pick-mattocks and mcleods to cut and level trail tread. There's truly no better way to get to know Mt. Charleston Wilderness!

Volunteers for this project must complete aTrailwork Volunteer Application and email snvstewardship@nevadawilderness.org to sign up. You only need to fill this form out once a year and will receive a confirmation email within 10 working days of submitting your application.

Difficulty Level: Strenuous - This project involves daily hikes of 5 - 6 miles on challenging terrain, at elevations of 7,500 - 10,800 ft, while carrying tools and all of your gear for the day. Participants need to be of a high general fitness level to move at a pace that will allow the group to reach trailwork sites by a set time. Participants should have some experience in the outdoors. This trip will be physically strenuous and extremely rewarding.

About the Trail - Located in Mt. Charleston Wilderness, 5.6 mile Griffith Peak Trail has been closed since being decimated by the Carpenter One fire and successive flooding in 2013. The trail is currently under an array of logs and, in some places, non-existent. Before wildfire, the trail provided a quieter alternative to South Loop Trail and offered views of the back of Red Rock Canyon. Reopening Griffith Peak Trail will give hikers additional access to alpine Bristlecone Pine forests, Griffith Peak (11,059 ft), and Charleston Peak (11,916 ft). We'll be approaching Griffith Peak Trail from Kyle Canyon, via the South Loop Trail.

About the Trailwork - This project doesn’t require any prior trailwork experience. You’ll receive a safety and training session before working, including proper techniques and tool use. We typically leave camp at 8 am and return by 4 pm. Be prepared be away from camp all day by carrying a day pack with lunch and at least 3 liters of water. We'll be on the trail Thursday - Sunday. We hope you can join us for the whole hitch, but you can also come for as little as two days. If you arrive part way through, you’ll need to meet us on the trail.

What You'll Need - Sturdy closed-toe shoes, long pants, and a long-sleeved shirt are required for this project. You’ll need a day pack and the capacity to carry at least 3 liters of water. You're responsible for your own camping gear and snacks as well as transportation to and from the project. Because there’s limited packing space, we’ll be asking some volunteers for this project to use tents that have already been packed up the trail.

What We'll Have - We'll provide tools, gloves, and hard hats. We'll have group camp gear, including ample water and cooking gear such as stoves and tables. We'll be making dinner for everyone at night, have a breakfast bar and coffee in the mornings, as well as basic sandwich fixings so you can make lunch for the day.

Camp - We'll be camping along South Loop trail, 4.2 miles and 2,900 up from the trailhead. We strongly encourage you to make use of our pack support to get your gear up the trail on Thursday. That way, more of our energy is spent building the trail rather than hiking up it. We’ll share more information with you about how to prep your gear to be packed. Otherwise, you are responsible to backpack your gear up to camp.

*If this project is full, email snvstewardship@nevadawilderness.org to join the waitlist.*

Spend the weekend celebrating the 26th annual National Public Lands Day with us at Big Rocks Wilderness! Roll up your sleeves to help install barriers that will prevent illegal motorized incursions into the Wilderness as we partner with the Nevada Commission on Off-Highway Vehicles. This is critical to protecting the area for hikers and hunters. Big Rocks Wilderness overlaps with the North Pahroc mountain range and contains mountains, canyons, and - you guessed it - large, jumbled boulders!

We'll work on Saturday, camp overnight, and explore the area on Sunday. Join us to experience an awesome place and give back to the public lands that give us so much!

What You'll Need: For while we're working, wear close-toed shoes, long pants, and a long-sleeve shirt and bring a water bottle and lunches for yourself. For overnight, bring everything you'll need to be set up camp for the night. Getting to this project requires some off-pavement driving. We'll have a limited number of seats available for those who need to carpool.

What We'll Have: A delicious camp dinner & dessert, breakfast bar and coffee in the morning, plenty of water, and all of the tools, hard hats, and other gear we'll need to make a difference!

*Volunteers under 18 years of age must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.*

Meet The Amargosa

Join Friends for our October Wild Speaker Series, “Meet The Amargosa”, at REI Boca Park. Tanya Henderson, Executive Director of the Amargosa Conservancy, will be our presenter as we learn about the Amargosa River and what conservationists like the Amargosa Conservancy are doing to save this habitat. Tanya will present in detail on the Amargosa groundwater basin and some of it's resources as well as recreational opportunities.The Amargosa River is one of two rivers in the Mojave Desert supporting a unique ecosystem home to it's own endangered, endemic species and a vital water source for many other creatures. Just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, parts of the Amargosa are an easy excursion out of the city and into some solitude. The Amargosa Conservancy works toward a sustainable future for the Amargosa River and its million square acre drainage basin. This will be an event you will not want to miss!

Tanya first worked in the Amargosa Basin unwittingly as a high schooler. She then visited the area after undergrad while working in the western Mojave and started working for the Amargosa Conservancy in 2015. Over the years she has also taken time to lead multiple summer high school trail maintenance crews and to teach conservation work skills to other Student Conservation Association (SCA) crew leaders. Before joining the Amargosa Conservancy team, she was working with teenagers in Hawaii, teaching organic farming in the rainforest.

We will see you there!

Every first Thursday of the month, Friends of Nevada Wilderness hosts a local environmental expert at REI Boca Park in their Community Room. This is a great event for folks who are interested in the outdoors to learn more about hikes, local habitat, and ways to get involved with conservation efforts.

Doors open at 6:45 giving you enough time to socialize and grab a snack before the presentation begins at 7 pm.

Please join us atREI Boca Parkevery first Thursday for a new speaker every month!

Saturday, October 19, 2019 at 08:00 AM
through October 20, 2019
Desert National Wildlife Refuge

Help us makeover the Deadhorse Trailhead, far in the backcountry of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge! We'll spend Saturday driving to the project site, installing and replacing signs, and building a rustic barrier to prevent the trailhead from growing ever larger. We'll camp out at the trailhead that night (dinner & dessert included), then drive back to town on Sunday morning. This is a great opportunity to take care of desert lands, meet fellow outdoors people, and unplug at one of the most remote places in southern Nevada!

What You'll Need: For while we're working, wear close-toed shoes, long pants, and a long-sleeve shirt and bring a water bottle and lunches for yourself. For overnight, bring everything you'll need to set up camp for the night. Getting to this project requires driving an un-maintained road. We'll have a limited number of seats available for those who need to carpool.

What We'll Have: A delicious camp dinner & dessert, breakfast bar and coffee in the morning, plenty of water, and all of the tools, hard hats, and other gear we'll need to make a difference!

Tickets are on sale now: $12 pre-sale, $5 for kids under 12 years old. Tickets the day of the Festival are $15.

Friends of Nevada Wilderness is hosting the 7th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival and membership drive at Zappos CampusDowntown Las Vegas on Saturday, November 2nd. We will start @ 3:00 pm with a Community Fair. Come out and enjoy food trucks, giveaways, music and information about Zappos and our non-profit community partners before the film program begin @ 5 pm. We also will be serving beer and wine to guests over 21 years of age.

The film program will feature conservation minded films each focusing on a subject that relates to nature, science, and/or outdoor recreation. We will also have raffle prizes, special guests speakers and Geoff Rhodes will return as host for the film program! Come enjoy a night of entertainment for a good cause.

What is the Wild & Scenic Film Festival?

The Wild & Scenic Film Festivalworks with environmentally conscious groups across the globe to inspire activism in our local communities through the power of film. We hope to use the festival to encourage a better community understanding of the connection we share with the planet and emphasize our role as stewards to keep it healthy for the next generations.

Why Friends of Nevada Wilderness?

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is Friends of Nevada Wilderness' southern flagship fundraising event to further our mission of protecting and stewarding wilderness in Nevada. It's a place to meet like-minded outdoor enthusiasts, learn about local and global environmental issues, and support our efforts to get boots on the ground in our backyard wild places.

Film Festival Parking and Ticket Pick Up

Parking is located on Stewart between 6th and 7th Ave!

For online ticket purchase pick up, visit will call at the box office located in the Zappos Plaza.